English Anarchy & Geoffrey de Mandeville - Scourge of the Fens

Geoffrey de Mandeville was the Earl of Essex in the time of King
Stephen (1135-1154). He is famous for his treachery and violence
around the time of the civil war waged between Stephen and Henry
Ist's daughter, the empress Matilda. As we shall see, his ability
to wreak havoc and suffering was to be felt heavily by the people
of Cambridgeshire.

The civil war of 1139-1153 is characterised by the greed and
ruthlessness of many knights and gentry who declared themselves
to be allied to either Stephen or Matilda but proceeded to wage
war on whoever they could gain most from whether it helped either
of the main protagonists or not. Stephen, King Henry Ist's
nephew, had opportunisticly seized the throne immediately after
Henry died with the help of his brother, the powerful bishop of
Winchester. Henry had persuaded his barons to swear an oath in
support of Matilda, his only surviving legitimate heir. However,
Matilda had spent most of her life in far away Germany, she was
a poor diplomat, was married to an Angevin (an unpopular alliance
as far as both the English and the Normans were concerned) and
she was a woman. It wasn't a hard decision for many of the barons
to renege on their oath in support of Matilda and support Stephen
instead.
Stephen might have avoided much bloodshed during his reign had
he not made a big mistake in the way he dealt with Roger, bishop
of Salisbury whom he suspected, perhaps not unreasonably, of
being in league with the empress. Roger had experienced a
meteoric rise in fortune during the reign of Henry. Henry, if one
historian is to be believed, had discovered Roger in France where
he had been impressed at the speed at which the clergyman could
read a mass. Henry appointed him as chancellor and as bishop of
Salisbury and quickly elevated him to justiciar - making him the
second most powerful man in England after himself. During
Stephen's reign, Roger had established a powerful dynasty with
his son as chancellor, his nephew Nigel as bishop of Ely and
another nephew as bishop of Lincoln, all of whom were building
or strengthening and garrisoning their own castles and
ostentatiously taking large retinues of armed men about with them
wherever they went. Stephen used a street brawl involving
Salisbury's men as an excuse to seize Salisbury, his son and the
bishop of Lincoln and chase Nigel of Ely to Devizes. After three
days seige, Nigel was betrayed by Salisbury's mistress who feared
for the safety of her husband and son. The king now had all the
castles of Salisbury's family and had badly abused the legates
in his custody. This action proved to be disastrous for Stephen.
The church was appalled at the way in which Stephen had treated
the clergymen. The king found many of his supporters switching
to Matilda's side, including his own brother, the bishop of
Winchester.

Stephen was a fearsome soldier. His chivalry and misplaced
generosity, however, could be said to have been excessive and
detrimental to his cause. His downfall at the battle of Lincoln
in 1141 can be attributed to behaviour which was typical of him.
Towards the end of 1140 one of Matilda's supporters, Rannulf, the
earl of Chester seized the castle of Lincoln. Instead of
attempting to punish Rannulf, Stephen gave him the castle plus
the city of Lincoln, plus a number of other castles. It was
complaints of harsh treatment by the citizens of Lincoln which
caused Stephen to rush to the city to sort Rannulf out. However
Rannulf had slipped away to get reinforcements among the
desperate knights who had lost everything they possessed fighting
for the Empress.

The battle of Lincoln took place on the 2nd of February 1141. The
kings forces easily defeated scouts sent by the earl to impede
his progress and gained a good tactical position. Obeying his
fatally chivalrous nature, Stephen took his men from easily
defendable high ground to a marshy plane by the city of Lincoln
to meet the earl's rabble for a fair fight. His cavalry failed
to ward off frenzied attacks of the disinherited knights who had
nothing to lose and everything to fight for. Stephen fought
fiercely until both his sword and axe were broken and eventually
was forced to surrender to Robert of Gloucester when he was
knocked down by a flying stone.

Stephen's cause was now left in the hands of his shrewd queen,
also called Matilda. She stood her own Cambridgeshire estates as
collateral for a loan from the London justiciar, Gervase of
Cornhill. She repurchased the support of Geoffrey de Mandeville
who had transferred his allegiance to the empress when things
started to go wrong for Stephen. She also won back the support
of Stephen's brother, the bishop of Winchester whose support
Stephen had lost after he mis-handled dealing with Roger of
Salisbury.

In November of 1141 Stephen was released in exchange for Robert
of Gloucester, an important ally of the empress who had been
captured by royalist forces whilst fleeing a defeat at
Winchester. Unchastened by his experience with the earl of
Chester, he heaped rewards and privileges on the treacherous
Geoffrey de Mandeville on top of the payment already made to him
by the queen. De Mandeville became sheriff and justiciar in three
separate counties. He was made constable of 'The Tower' - a role
which effectively put him in charge of London but in which he
evidently earned the loathing of the people of that city. The
proof of the Londoners' hatred of de Mandeville exists in a
document which points to his ultimate treason (that is, before
he turned into a sadistic monster of the fens). He changed his
allegiance back to the empress, drawing up a charter in which he
dictates that she should make no peace with the burgesses of
London without his consent 'because they are his mortal foes'.
He continued to attend court and feign friendship with the king
even though it was generally known that he was in league with the
Stephen's enemies. Eventually his arrogance was too much for the royalists
and he was arrested suddenly in St. Albans in 1143. As punishment
for treason he was given the choice of execution or giving up the
Tower and his castles in Essex. He chose life and vengeance - on
the people of Cambridgeshire!

De Mandeville fled to the marshy swamps of the fens with an army
of mercenaries and ruffians. He seized and occupied Ely, using
it as a fortress and drove the monks out of Ramsey Abbey and used
it as a headquarters for his mob. From here he plundered,
ransacked, and burnt property. He employed every type of torture
conceivable to extract crippling ransom from anyone unfortunate
enough to fall into his hands. Cambridge itself was ransacked and
burnt. No one, regardless of age, sex or profession was safe.
Over a stretch of twenty or thirty miles of countryside there was
not an ox or plough to be seen. A serious famine resulted to add
to the already enormous death toll. Stephen was unable to get an army through
the impenetrable fens to rid the area of the evil earl leaving de Mandeville free to carry on at will.
Fortunately, however, de Mandeville was hit by an arrow whilst
attacking Burwell Castle in August 1144 and died soon afterwards.

The earl of Chester was arrested for treason two years later and
on his release after surrendering his castles, plunged into an
similar orgy of ferocious brutality. Scores of lesser barons and
free lances around the country waged horror upon anyone they felt
they could extract plunder from.

The anarchy slowly abated over
several painful years. Two factors helped bring back order.
Firstly, the Angevin cause was fading. Stephen cut Matilda off
from her Gloucestershire strongholds with a success at Faringdon
in 1145 and effectively ended the Angevin threat for the rest of his reign.
Secondly, the fall of
Edessa in 1144 eventually led to the second crusade which gained
momentum in 1146 when Louis VII of France and emperor Conrad III
took the cross. Many lawless Anglo-Norman noblemen took leave
from their bloody work in England to slaughter and get
slaughtered in the Holy Land.

Factual information in this article was obtained from 'Domesday
Book to Magna Carta' by A.L. Poole, published by Oxford
University Press, ISBN 0-19-285287-6.

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